


Burying the Hatchet

by orphan_account



Category: Jessica Jones (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 22:39:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15229485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Staring at Kilgrave for the last time, Jessica takes a gamble.





	Burying the Hatchet

Nirvana blasted through her earbuds emptying her mind of anything in a way that only Nirvana could. The intense volume mixed with the raw emotional music caused her pleasure and pain – something which Jessica had learned always went together.

She stood there, looking at this man over the sights of her gun.

Kilgrave.

The devil incarnate.

The man who ruined her life and many others. Death would have been simpler and perhaps preferable to surviving an encounter with him.

How could he just go around and rape, murder, torture anyone to his whim?

There was no one on the dock. No one would report the incident.

Here was her chance.

Now he was saying something to her. He didn’t look like the confidant, smarmy bastard that he usually was.

Damn good thing she never learned to lipread.

She pursed her lips, hand starting to shake. “One thing I have to know – you were tortured as a child to get your abilities. Would you ever wish that upon someone else?”

She could tell she’d hit a nerve as his eyes misted over. He glanced down and to the side.

A verbal reply wasn’t necessary. He might not know what it was like for anyone else upon which he’d inflicted his control, but he knew what it was like for him – to be helpless, forgotten.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but she’d never considered that maybe he’d been controlled this whole time – his unusual past shaping him to what he was today.

“Maybe we could be friends,” she choked out as tears started falling down her face. Stupid, stupid. Was it the alcohol in her veins, making her so desperate to forget the past?

He was saying something. Of course it wasn’t a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. 

“Kilgrave, you start any sentence with the word ‘you’, and this bullet will leave this gun before you finish the end of it. You got that?”

He nodded.

She ripped off her earbuds, squeezing the trigger to the point just before it would fire. “What did you say?”

“I said- are you out of your fucking mind?”

“Probably,” she said mildly, then punched him in the jaw.

He lay sprawling on the ground. “Is that how you treat all your friends?” he spluttered.

She frowned. “Actually, I don’t think there is anyone I haven’t punched.”

He didn’t look surprised. Groaning, he got to his feet.

“Now don’t try anything!” she almost yelped as she whipped the gun towards him again. Her fear was getting the better of her, and tears started falling.

“Can you put the gun down, please?” he said gently, raising his hands in surrender.

She instinctively lowered the gun, then gasped as she realised he was controlling her. Now she was a vulnerable mess, pleading with her captor to be nice to her. “You’re doing it again,” she sobbed.

“I… didn’t mean to,” Kilgrave said, frowning. “I just wanted to ask you the question. I wanted you to have a choice.”

If he had controlled her, it wasn’t in the usual commanding tone with reckless abandonment.

Not having much leverage, she continued. “So, meet me at my local at 8 o’clock tomorrow? We can have a drink together.”

“So you want a babysitter,” he said dryly, still keeping his hands raised.

She blinked. “No… friends go out for drinks. And it’ll be easier for me,” she managed to say, trying to hide her whimpering tone.

“Fine. Tomorrow at 8pm.”

She looked at him, her vulnerability becoming overwhelming. She shouted as she heard a gunshot, then realised it had come from her gun that had been pointed at the ground.

He looked freaked, still having his hands raised in the surrender position.

She pointed the gun at him again. “Stay away!” she screamed.

“Until 8pm tomorrow, you mean?” he asked, wide-eyed.

She gulped. “Yeah,” she muttered, then fled.

 

*****

 

8.05pm.

Where the hell was he? His punctuality couldn’t be questioned, so obviously he’d just used her chance for reconciliation to escape. How could she be so stupid? She’d really meant nothing to him – just a passing amusement, a game from which he could easily walk away.

She really had been out of her mind to trust him. She was so selfish, wanting to come to terms with her past. How many people’s lives had she put in danger now? He could be doing God knows what to any number of people, and it was all her-

“Sorry I’m late,” Kilgrave said as he sat next to her at the booth. “There was quite a traffic jam over the bridge.”

She slammed her palm down on the table. “How many people did you kill?!?” she demanded.

Kilgrave looked freaked. They looked around to find the entire bar staring at them.

“Is… this how she normally treats people?” he asked them.

A unanimous “Yes” was his reply. She shot them a dirty look.

She rolled her eyes. “Thank you for coming, anyway,” she grunted.

Kilgrave gave a slight nod. “Lovely place,” he commented. “A very grungy, _real_ feel to it.” Looking around, he noted a man puking in the corner. A fistfight was happening outside. “I can see why you like it.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You know, this would be easier over a glass.” She turned to the bartender. “A double, please.”

The bartender shook his head. “Sorry, but you’ve had enough – I’m cutting you off.”

She scoffed.

Kilgrave looked at her incredulously. “You’ve been here five minutes, and you’ve already drunk yourself silly?”

“I came a little early,” she said sheepishly.

He pursed his lips. “Well, shall we?” motioning for them to go.

She staggered out, accidentally brushing into him. “Oeerrr… don’t walk so fast.”

“If I walked any slower, we might not make it to the end of the block by the time the night’s over.”

“Why do you have to be so… _right_?” she whinged, then laughed. It was fun to be disrespectful to this man, even though it was in the back of her mind that she could only do what he’d allow for.

He shot her a frustrated look. “See, there’s a movie theatre… why don’t we go in? At least you won’t have to keep staggering around.”

“Alright, but it’s _not a date_ ,” she said emphatically, pointing her finger at him.

He guided her stumbling form to the entrance of the theatre.

“But you’re going to have to pay for the tickets,” she said sheepishly. “I spent my money already. It’s your fault I drink so much. But it’s not a date.”

She could see him biting his tongue.

“It would be my great honour to pay for your tickets,” he said rather stoically as they approached the counter. “Any drinks? Popcorn?”

“You should know what I like to drink,” she said belligerently.

He cocked his head. “Not really, if it’s non-alcoholic… perhaps water?”

“Coke,” she said quickly to the clerk. “It’s not a date,” she added as she picked up the popcorn.

Kilgrave rolled his eyes as he handed the clerk the money. The clerk gave him a sympathetic look.

They found their seats, with her spilling half her popcorn because she was so tipsy.

“It’s not a date,” she said strongly as she sat down. He raised his hands in surrender as he sat next to her. “NOT a date,” she repeated yet again.

“Shut. Up.” Kilgrave spat, frustrated.

After about five minutes, he realised she wasn’t talking. With horror, he looked at her. “Er, you can talk now, if you wish,” he whispered.

“Fuck you!” she shouted, angry at him for controlling her yet again.

“Shut up!” said someone in the back of the theatre. “Yeah, shut up!” someone else chimed in.

Kilgrave smirked. She gave him a withering look as they turned to watch the movie.

 

*****

 

Jessica stumbled out of the theatre, feeling a lot more unsteady than she did before. “Well, that was some fucked up movie.”

“Yeah… how could that murderer even _think_ about getting away with it by leaving those witnesses alive?”

She slowly turned around and stared him down, not feeling as menacing as she would like given that she was swaying like a palm tree in the wind. “Seriously… THAT is what you took from it? Nothing about the trauma to the victims, the degradation of society?”

“What? Wrong answer?” he said innocently.

“You could say that,” she said, giving a spluttering laugh that morphed into her clutching her stomach, groaning.  

“Well, do you want me to give my honest answer, or do you want to control me to say the answer you want to hear?” Kilgrave replied as he grabbed one of her arms, steadying her.

Her eyes widened as she turned to look at him. “Honest answer,” she said sheepishly.

She then fell against the wall, groaning in pain.

“Good Lord… whatever have you done to yourself? That barman might have saved your life before.”

“It’s just… everything…” Jessica managed to say before she collapsed on a pile of garbage bags.

 

*****

 

She awoke to the hypnotic rhythm of passing streetlights. Drawing breath quickly, she realised she was in the back of a cab with him, slouched on the remaining two seats.

“What have you done to me?” she said miserably as she tried to push her way up.

“Wouldn’t have taken much to have put some drugs in your Coca Cola,” he said dryly.

Outraged, she moved face to face with him. “Did you? Did you really?”

He was gagging from her close proximity. Her breath was awful. “No, I don’t need to resort to that to control people. I guarantee that whatever you’re feeling is a result of your own doing.”

“Well, that Coca Cola is strong stuff,” she said, smirking, satisfied at his answer.

She then collapsed again.

 

*****

 

When she awoke again, she was in his arms in what she assumed was his apartment. Seeing that he was taking her towards the bedroom, she started to panic. “No… please, no…”

Looking weary, he blinked as he realised she was awake. “Don’t worry… been there, done that,” he said dryly as he let her find her footing.

She gave an audible gasp of pain from his flippant approach of the one degrading, humiliating incident that shaped her life. Tears forming in her eyes, she staggered backwards until she found the wall, then she slid down it.

For once, she didn’t try to hide her pain as she cried into her knees, forgetting about everything else.

 

*****

 

It was now morning. Looking around, she found herself on Kilgrave’s couch covered in a blanket.

“Good morning,” he said, sitting across the room. He looked weary and troubled.

“Morning,” she said quietly.

“I’m glad you’re looking better.” His usual naïve enthusiasm was absent.

She nodded. “Thanks for your… help.”

His raised both eyebrows in response, too tired to do anything else.

“You know what might even the score?” she said mildly. “If we try to track down the people who tortured you, so you can confront them.”

“Do you honestly think they’d just let me walk away after what they did?”

“They’re already dead,” she said flatly. “Of course.”

“If it’s any consolation, it was… difficult to see you cry last night. You cried for hours. And so intently.”

She looked up at him, surprised that he’d show any degree of empathy. Then the memories of what she was crying about came flooding back. Her bottom lip started to quaver and the room started spinning.

“Here,” he said, pouring some water for both of them, then popping a round pill in Jessica’s glass.

“What the hell is that?” she demanded.

“I keep telling you I _don’t do drugs_ ,” he replied snippily, handing her the glass. “It’s an antacid tablet.”

She gazed at the fizz.

“Can you tell me – do I at least make you feel special?” he asked.

She blinked. That question was out of the blue. “Sure, but that’s also how they refer to people who are retarded.”

He pursed his lips. Trust her to have a smartass answer even when her head must be massively ringing from the hangover.

“And you?” she said. “Are you starting to think the way normal people do?”

“No,” he said almost compassionately. “But I’m starting to realise how _you_ think.”

Jessica smirked. “That I can work with,” she said as she clinked glasses with him.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm taking a lot of license with these fictional characters - don't think it would be plausible if they weren't fictional!
> 
> Also, note that I haven't finished watching the first season - gotta say I was surprised when she showed up at his doorstep. So apologies for continuity errors! this is just a what-if.


End file.
